Spice Invaders - (by Chillingo) - Universal App

[Bool Zero]

Originally Posted by C.Hannum

And here's the (first?) paywall:
After you play the 7th map you are informed that you're now headed to Africa... which you have to either be Lvl 20 (a good 10 or more levels higher than where you'll be at this point) or pay 42 spice (a good 30 or so more spice than you have at this point if you've been upgrading your towers).

So, you either cough up the cash, grind like hell to reach Lvl 20, or grind for enough spice to get past the barrier and forego at least 2 decent tower upgrades for the privilege of not grinding your way to Lvl 20 on the beginner maps.

I also just found the part where all the magic is strictly consumable for spice, which I didn't realize before nearly burning through most of the free uses. So, take the annoyance people had with the IAP bombs in Gem Keeper (which never bothered me since you didn't really need them) and multiply it several times with the way this game is done, yikes.

So what you are saying is that in order to progress you either have to grind an excruciating amount of time or pay money up front to essentially go into an area that it probably way too high for you at level 10 or so where you will most likely be way underpowered. Assuming that they actually approached the game with some sense of balance, it would be assumed that those upper levels are going to be a challenge at level 20, so approaching them at level 10 or so they would have to be near impossible!

Sounds like they designed this game as a money pit... If you grind you are treated to padded tedious grinding and enough ad bombardment to cover your intent to not pay in, and if you pay in you are treated to further difficulty and further temptation to buy in and pay more just further avoid the frustration of finding you are too underpowered to actually play what you payed to access early... Well played Chillingo, well played!

[ufogeek]

Each time you level up you get 5 spices. Ok, I get it now, if you guys blew all your spices on magic, too bad. I don't use magic, which means each map is quite a challenge. You get xp even if you fail. After a few tries, you level up, try again, getting to level 20 didnt feel like a grind. Magic is the IAP sink, if you dont use magic, the game is completely free...

[smes3817]

Ok I suppose I haven't played enough yet or leveled up enough but at what point do the multiplayer and other single player modes unlock? I can still only play the normal modes in every level...

[ColeDaddy]

I've not been a fan of TD games until recently. I've only played through the first 4 levels and I must say that I'm impressed by the production and entertainment value the game provides. However, trolling through this forum and reading about the relative need for IAP in order to progress at later levels at the cost of grinding, is starting to gnaw at me. I'm currently at a stand still wondering if grinding it out is worth the time and effort, especially if I don't plan on purchasing IAP. It goes without saying that I much prefer paying up front for a game that I can finish without a need for IAP. I don't mind purchasing additional games/levels at an affordable price point ala Carcasonne or Catan (but, I do appreciate free updates even more). Until then, I'm hemming and hawing, reading and considering...

[yussicam]

cool tutorial

[C.Hannum]

Originally Posted by ufogeek

Each time you level up you get 5 spices. Ok, I get it now, if you guys blew all your spices on magic, too bad. I don't use magic, which means each map is quite a challenge. You get xp even if you fail. After a few tries, you level up, try again, getting to level 20 didnt feel like a grind. Magic is the IAP sink, if you dont use magic, the game is completely free...

You are either talking out your behind, or just trolling at this point. Nobody in this thread has mentioned buying the magic other than pointing out it's another unacceptable monetization aspect of the game.

And, sure, you can grind your way to Level 20 without much problem if you can accept the game design, which few people will once they get far enough along.

Because based on everything I saw before my game was permanently ruined by a Crystal glitch, without ever buying the first avatar upgrade or magic refill, even if you ground your way to the 50th map and level 30, you still won't have earned enough spice at that point to unlock all the towers, but I strongly suspect based on everything I saw, that you probably can't even reach that point without considerable spice purchases.

So, tell you what, when you've unlocked 26 maps, that's about half the game according to their description, and you've done so without spending anything on IAP, come back and let us know. I'm curious to know if you'll get that far and what it took to do so.

[Dazarath]

I seem to be stuck with a default name of "Ijhere", while someone else on my GC list has their GC name. Is there any way to change this?

[GoofyJmaster.]

Originally Posted by Dazarath

I seem to be stuck with a default name of "Ijhere", while someone else on my GC list has their GC name. Is there any way to change this?

Did you log into Crystal? I had the same problem before I signed in.

[Dazarath]

Originally Posted by GoofyJmaster.

Did you log into Crystal? I had the same problem before I signed in.

I did. I believe I logged in soon after playing for the first time.

[C.Hannum]

Originally Posted by GoofyJmaster.

Did you log into Crystal? I had the same problem before I signed in.

True, but not quite

It is supposed to use your Crystal login as your pirate name, but it's more than bit glitchy.

The very first time I logged into Crystal, it still kept "Pirate Dc289grblwbub" (or whatever it actually was) as my name until after I'd completely exited the game and came back. That all worked well enough.

After I tried to restore it with Crystal after a crash fubared by game, it kept me as "Pirate B83zruglick" through three restarts of the game. It finally started calling me by Crystal name on the fourth load up, went back to random crap for the fifth, went back to my Crystal name for the sixth, but by then I'd confirmed that none of the upgrade perks were actually working even though they were clearly enabled in the Upgrade pane, so at that point I cut my losses and deleted the thing.